Monday, 16 September 2013

We have today put live the first in a series of changes to Politics.co.uk designed to make it a more user-friendly website, whatever device you are viewing it on.

While users of the website on a laptop or desktop computer will notice some cosmetic changes, such as larger font and images, it is users of tablets and mobile phones that will notice the biggest difference.

Gone is the separate mobile website (m.politics.co.uk will shortly be switched off), users of mobile phones can now enjoy all the content available to those viewing Politics.co.uk on a desktop but in a format that should be as easy to consume as the old mobile site. There will be a short transition period where some of the site won't be mobile friendly, but we'll have this sorted within a week or so, so please bear with us in the meantime.

Tablet users will also notice a big difference, with a responsive design which changes depending on whether you are viewing it in portrait or landscape. It should be easier to navigate with a font size optimised for tablet use rather than the old desktop version which wasn’t particularly user friendly for those with larger fingers.

And it’s not just on the surface that changes have been made. A lot of work has gone into reducing page load times, which is great news for desktop and tablet users, and particularly for mobile users relying on a mobile signal to read the website.

Overall, the design has been cleaned and simplified with an emphasis on making it a more enjoyable visual experience, easier to read and easier to find the latest content and related content.

The job is far from complete. There are still a number of pages that we need to adapt to the new style. But given the clear usability enhancements, we felt it was important to get the new design pushed out as soon as possible.

We would love to hear what you think about the changes we have made and whether you feel the user experience has been improved. We will be keeping a close eye on how the changes are performing and will look to respond to feedback and analyses of user behaviour.

Please comment below, or tweet us at @politics_co_uk. It would be great to hear from you.